•.-;«•; 


A  Lecture  Read  Before  the 
Massachusetts  Teachers  f  Association, 
At  Springfield,  October  19th,  1861? 

By 
Henry  ^.  Harrington 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


V  ,   U  '.   C 


O>n-  <;>'<rn»)><tr  Mr/tools  :     )>'//>'  do  ///cj>  nof  funtts/t   HHHV  and 
hiaf  <>)•/'  a!  to  our  ///////  -SW/iW.v  .y 


L  E  C  T  IT  R  E 

HEAD    HKFOKK    THK 

MASSACHUSETTS  TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATION, 

AT    SPRINGFIELD,    October    i9th,    1867, 


HENRY   F.    HARRINGTON, 

Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  New  Bedford.  Mass. 


SECOXD    KD1TIOX. 


BOSTON: 

riMKSIJ  V      AND      A  INS  WO  15  Til. 

1868. 


Our  Grammar  Schools:     Why  do  they  not  furnish  more  and 
better  material  to  our  High  Schools  ? 


LEG  TTJRE 

READ   BEFORE   THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  TEACHEES'  ASSOCIATION, 

AT   SPRINGFIELD,   October    ipth,    1867, 


BT 


HENRY  F.    HARRINGTON, 
Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
CROSBY     AND     AINSWORTH. 

1868. 


Library 
Cf^ 


LECTURE 


Fellow  Teachers  of  the  Massachusetts  Association  : 

J 

When    one    undertakes    an    examination    of   the    High 


Schools  of  our   State,  that  he  may  acquaint  himself  with 
—    their  condition  and  the  measure  of  their  usefulness,  he  ia 

confronted,  at  the  outset,  by  two  striking  facts. 
y        One  is,  that  the  number  of  scholars  in  that  grade  of  schools 
*•    is  comparatively  very  small.     For  whereas,   (using  the  sta- 
2    tistics  of  some  of  the  larger  communities  as  the  basis  of  com- 

U* 

putation,)  the  average  number  of  scholars  of  all  the  grades  to 
every  thousand  of  the  population  is  about  one  hundred  and 
forty,  and  the  average  number  of  Grammar  scholars  to  the 
same  is  sixty-hve,  the  corresponding  average  of  High  School 

^  scholars  to  every  thousand  of  the  population  is  only  seven. 

i  The  second  fact  adverted  to  is,  that  the  education  of  the 
\1  great  majority  of  the  youth  who  are  admitted  to  our  High 

\  Schools  is  found,  when  they  are  put  upon  the  work  of  those 
schools,  to  be  poor  and  inadequate.  The  teachers  of  High 
Schools,  almost  everywhere,  when  they  converse  on  the  sub- 
ject, inveigh  against  the  wretched  mental  furnishing  of  the 
periodical  increment  of  their  schools.  This  very  essay  orig- 
inated, in  part,  in  a  question  put  by  a  prominent  High 
School  instructor,  in  my  hearing,  some  time  ago.  Said  he, 
in  accents  of  the  deepest  interest  and  concern,  "Can  we  not 
have,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Teachers'  Association  this  year, 
in  some  form  or  other,  a  consideration  of  the  causes  why  the 


397465 


material  that  comes  to  our  High  Schools  from  the  Grammar 
Schools,  is  so  miserably  incompetent  for  the  studies  of  the 
High  School  course?"  It  is  not  that  the  scholars  in  ques- 
tion may  not  have  passed  the  prescribed  examination  for 
admission  with  credit  to  themselves,  nor  that  that  examina- 
tion may  not  have  been  based  on  a  high  standard  of  require- 
ment, according  to  current  notions  of  high  requirement. 
Heaven  help  the  teachers  and  scholars  of  those  High  Schools, 
where  the  standard  of  fitness  is  so  low,  that  even  technical 
excellence  in  the  ordinary  Grammar  School  branches  is  not 
cared  for ;  so  that  the  studies  of  those  schools  are  only  a 
patch-work  of  elementary  branches  mixed  up  with  ill-assorted 
osophies  and  ologies,  with  which  latter,  few  of  the  scholars 
are  competent  to  deal  in  any  wise.  Heaven  help  them,  I 
say,  for  they  would  seem  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  mortal 
aid !  No,  I  am  not  emphasizing  any  failure  of  this  description; 
for  it  is  one  distinguishing  feature  of  the  case,  that,  like  as 
not,  the  more  excellent  a  scholar  may  have  been  as  to  the 
technical  requisitions  of  his  examination,  the  less  qualified 
will  he  be  found,  in  some  particulars,  for  an  intelligent  grasp 
of  the  studies  that  may  be  assigned  him.  His  defect  may  be 
stated,  in  brief,  to  be  a  lack  of  sufficient  mental  development 
to  comprehend  the  subject  matter  of  the  new  fields  of  study 
that  he  is  put  upon  in  the  High  School,  and  too  great  igno- 
rance of  language  to  understand  the  phraseology  of  his  new 
text  books.  Language  is  the  indispensable  key  to  all  intel- 
ligent study  and  progress;  and  how  muchsoever  else  the 
Grammar  Scholar  may  have  learned,  he  is  in  general  poorly 
equipped  with  knowledge  of  the  power  and  uses  of  language  ; 
and  therefore  is  incompetent  to  get  fairly  on. 

And  I  ask  now,  are  these  two  fiacts  irremediable,  or  can 
we,  if  we  be  so  minded,  and  sustained  by  the  requisite 
authority,  substitute  a  new  order  of  things?.  The  answer 
to  this  question  will  constitute  the  substance  of  this  essay. 


I  am  ready  to  reply,  and  hope  to  convince  you,  that  both 
these  defects,  the  former  in  part,  the  latter  altogether,  are  the 
direct  consequences  of  a  false  system  of  action,  and  are 
therefore  so  far  of  easy  remedy.  T  insist  that  both  result,  to 
the  extent  that  I  have  indicated,  from  the  strained  and 
pedantic  standard  of  qualification  for  admission  to  the  High 
School  which  now  almost  invariably  prevails.  Change  that 
standard,  and  you  will  instantly  accomplish  a  corresponding 
change  of  results. 

Jn  the  first  place,  I  am  quite  sure  that  it  is  not  a  fact,  as  is 
generally  assumed,  at  least  in  all  the  considerable  centers  of 
population,  that  few  now  enter  the  High  Schools  from  the 
Grammar  Schools,  because  the  necessities,  the  sordid  interest, 
or  the  indifference  of  the  parents  of  the  remainder,  forces 
them  to  leave  study  for  remunerative  work.  This  is  true  to 
a  large  extent.  But  I  believe  .that  at  least  a  hundred  per 
cent,  more  than  now  enter  the  High  Schools  might  be 
readily  induced  to  become  members  of  them,  if  the  condi- 
tions of  admission  were  what  they  ought  to  be;  if  they 
were  not  artificially  and  arbitrarily  repressive.  It  is  in  vain 
to  tell  rne  that  the  parents  who  now  withdraw  their  children 
from  study  at  the  close  of  the  Grammar  School  course,  are 
well  satisfied  with  that  limit  of  education  for  them.  I  have 
found  that  the  parents  of  our  scholars,  in  every  phase  of 
society,  wherever  I  have  had  opportunities  of  observation, 
are  actuated  by  an  intense  desire  that  their  children  should 
enjoy  the  very  highest  fruits  of  our  Public  School  System. 
They 'feel  a  satisfaction,  (of  which  pride  is  an  element,  as 
well  'as  a  sense  of  benefit,)  at  being  able  to  say  that  their 
children  have  been  members  of  the  High  School,  that  makes 
many  of  the  poor  among  them  willing  to  undergo  the  sever- 
est privations,  if  only  that  goal  may  be  reached ;  and 
furthermore,  there  are  few  parents,  at  least  of  native  ancestry, 


6 

who  do  not  realize  intensely,  that  it  is  to  cut  off  their  children 
from  opportunity  in  the  very  best,  the  crowning  period  of 
their  educational  progress,  to  withdraw  them  from  school 
before  they  are  from  sixteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age.  And 
by  the  common  consent  of  educators,  they  ought  to  be 
well  nigh  through  the  High  School,  as  its  studies  are  now 
apportioned,  at  seventeen  years  of  age.  Why,  I  ask,  do 
they  not  enjoy  corresponding  opportunities? 

In  all  localities  where  a  well  considered  school  organiza- 
tion prevails,  there  is  in  existence  an  ideal  system  of  gra- 
dation, whereby  a  child  who  enters  the  Primary  School  at 
five  years  of  age  is  to  graduate  from  the  Grammar  School 
at  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  of  age;  the  classes  being 
expected  to  move  forward  in  mass,  on  a  scale  of  minimum 
requirement,  that  will  give  average  ability  and  application  a 
fair  chance ;  so  that  only  in  exceptional  cases,  where  some 
outright  dullard  or  trifler*  would  plainly  be  injured  by  ad- 
vancement, is  any  one  to  be  kept  down.  This  is  the  true 
system.  This  alone  can  secure  the  greatest  g*ood  of  the 
greatest  number.  We  have  no  moral  right  to  cull  out  the 
choice,  highly  gifted  spirits  from  the  several  classes,  and  put 
them  rapidly  forward,  instituting  repressive  maximum  ex- 
aminations, that  only  such  gifted  spirits  can  encounter.  Our 
schools  are  for  the  children  of  the  whole  people,  all  the  way 
through.  True,  there  must  be  stimuli  to  exertion.  But  let 
them  be  derived  from  other  sources  than  the  interposition  of 
barriers  impassible  by  the  majority  until  after  failure  upon 
failure,  and  a  travel  over  and  over  the  same  track  in  hateful 
repetition.  According  to  the  system  of  organization  to*  which 
I  have  referred,  the  classes  should  be  put  regularly  forward, 
first  through  the  Primary  Schools,  then  up  through  the 
allotted  years  of  the  Grammar  Schools,  and  then,  tested  by  a 
sufficient,  but  not  arbitrarily  repressive  ordeal,  into  the  High 
School.  And  under  such  circumstances,  I  believe,  as  I  have 


said,  that  at  least  as  many  again  would  attend  the  High 
Schools  as  are  found  to  join  them  now. 

And  why  is  it  otherwise  ?      It  is  because  of  the  artificial, 
pedantic  character  of  the  examinations  for  admission  to  the 
High  Schools,  which  operates  to  modify  the  structure  of  the 
Grammar  Schools  in  the  most  vicious  manner,  and  thereby 
to  keep  the  bulk  of  the  scholars  unduly  back,  so  as  to  de- 
prive them  of  the  opportunity  of  High  School  instruction. 
Take  for  illustration,  the  working  of  the  Boston  Grammar 
Schools ;  and  I  instance  them  particularly,  not  in  any  spirit 
of  invidious  detraction* — I  trust  that  I  shall  not  be  accused 
of  that — but  because  the  school  system  of  Boston  is  regarded 
as  standing  at  the  head  of  the  school  organizations  of  the 
State,  and  is  the  object   of  special  inquiry  and  emulation  ; 
and  because,  moreover,  the   Boston   Grammar  Schools,  on 
account  of  their  unusual  size,  exhibit  in  a  very  striking  man- 
ner, the  vicious  results  of  which  I  have  spoken.     We  find 
the  most  of  those  schools,  comprising  severally  eight,  ten, 
twelve,  fourteen  and  sixteen  rooms,  while  nominally  subdi- 
vided into  four  classes,  corresponding  to  the  years  allotted 
to  the   Grammar  School  course,  virtually  if  not  confessedly 
separated  into  as  many,  or  nearly  as  many  classes,  as  there 
are  rooms  in  the  building.      Passage  from  room  to  room  of 
all  this  number  depends  on  the  results  of  stated  and  rigid 
examinations  ;  and  the  consequence  is  that  the  great  major- 
ity are  kept  down,  until  nearly  or  quite  all  their  possible 
school  time  is  exhausted  in  the  struggle  upwards  ;  and  that 
perhaps,  even  before  they  have  enjoyed  the  advantage  of 
membership  in  the  highest  class.     The   highest  class  in  each 
school  embraces,  from  year  to  year,  from  the  very  nature  of 

*I  wish  to  say,  emphatically,  that  my  criticism  on  the  Boston  Schools  is  to 
be  limited  expressly  to  the  points  in  question.  In  other  regarda  I  rejoice  to 
acknowledge  their  preeminent  merits. 


9 

the  case,  only  the  choice  spirits  of  the  school,  such  as  have 
proved  themselves  capable  of  undergoing  with  success  the 
peculiar  training  essential  to  prepare  them  for  the  ordeal  of 
admission  to  the  High  School.  Thus  the  interests  of  the 
school  as  a  grand  whole,  are  disregarded  and  sacrificed. 
And  we  have  these  further  results  ;  first,  that  in  many  if  not 
most  instances,  the  ages  of  the  second  class,  destined  to  re- 
main two  years  in  the  school,  will  average  about  the  same 
with  the  ages  of  the  first  class,  destined  to  remain  only  one 
year  in  the  school ;  again,  that  the  number  to  enjoy  the  full 
honors  of  graduation  is  painfully  small  in  comparison  with 
the  average  complement  of  the  schools ;  so  that  we  had  in 
July  last,  thirty-five  as  the  largest  number  to  graduate  from 
any  Boston  Grammar  School,  although  several  of  her  Gram- 
mar Schools  have  an  average  of  from  eight  hundred  to  a 
thousand  scholars;  and  one  school,  in  high  repute,  with  an 
average  attendance  of  nearly  nine  hundred,  graduated  only 
twenty-three.  It  is  a  related  fact  that  the  total  admitted  to 
the  Girls'  High  and  Normal  School  from  all  the  Grammar 
Schools,  for  fourteen  years,  to  1866,  was  only  fourteen  hundred 
and  eighty-five  ;  and  to  the  English  High  School  for  the  same 
period,  only  thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-eight.  This  twenty 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-three,  for  fourteen  years,  to  both 
schools,  gives  an  average  of  two  hundred  and  one  per  an- 
num, which  is  the  whole  number  to  which  Boston  has 
afforded  public  High  School  instruction  out  of  an  average 
attendance  on  the  Grammar  Schools  of  nearly  twelve  thou- 
sand for  the  same  number  of  years.  We  have  this  further 
fact,  that  the  average  age  of  the  girls  when  they  graduate 
from  a  Boston  Grammar  School,  is  sixteen  years  six  months. 
The  average  age  of  the  boys,  up  to  the  present  year,  has 
been  about  fifteen  years  six  months.  Thus,  a  good  part  of 
those  years  of  Boston  youth,  which  are  ordinarily  expected 
to  be  spent  in  the  High  Schools,  is  exhausted  in  the  Gram- 


9 

mar  Schools.  And,  with  due  allowance  for  difference  of 
circumstances,  these  lamentable  results  of  the  strained  and 
artificial  examinations  for  admission  to  the  High  Schools  of 
Boston,  may  be  asserted  to  attach  more  or  less  to  most  of  the 
school  systems  of  the  State  at  large.  And  it  is  a  fair  de- 
duction, that  if  the  scholars  of  the  Grammar  Schools  were 
moved  forward  systematically,  according  to  a  true  organiza- 
tion, rny  premise  would  hold  good,  viz  :  that  as  many  again 
would  be  profitably  enjoying  the  advantages  of  the  High 
Schools  as  are  found  to  enter  them  now. 

There  is  a  second  ground  on  which  I  base  that  premise, 
•comprised  in  a  few  casual  but  striking  facts.  Thus  the 
immber  admitted  to  the  English  High  School  in  Boston,  by 
a  little  extra  attention,  without  any  radical  change  of  system, 
has  been  positively  doubled  within  three  years ;  and  in  an- 
other of  our  cities,  the  substitution  of  symmetrical  organ- 
ization in  lieu  of  little  or  no  system,  has  placed  in  the  first 
classes  of  the  Grammar  schools,  and  in  preparation  for  the 
High  School,  full  one  hundred  per  cent,  more  scholars,  at  the 
same  comparative  standard  of  attainment,  than  were  ever  in 
those  classes  under  similar  circumstances,  before. 

But  it  may  be  said,  "My  Dear  Sir,  you  are  stultifying 
yourself!  You  begin  with  the  bold  assumption  that  the  in- 
crement of  our  High  Schools  is,  in 'some  respects,  poorly 
cultured,  and  yet  are  complaining  that  the  number  of  candi- 
dates should  be  so  small.  Surely,  if  they  are  to  manifest 
so  marked  disability,  the  fewer  that  may  present  themselves, 
the  better." 

Yes,  if  they  are  to  manifest  so  marked  disability.  But 
for  the  sake  of  the  reputation  dear  old  mother  Massachu- 
setts bears  for  discarding  shams  and  conserving  only  solid 
realities,  let  us  reform  the  course  of  instruction  in  our 
Grammar  Schools,  so  that  their  graduates  may  no  longer  be 


10 

branded  with  such  shames.  This  brings  me  to  my  second 
point,  viz :  that  the  defects  of  which  High  School  teachers 
complain  in  the  material  furnished  them,  are  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  a  false  standard  of  qualification  for  admis- 
sion to  the  High  School,  that  almost  everywhere  prevails. 
The  questions  now  annually  prepared  as  tests  of  qualifica- 
tion, bear  about  as  close  a  relation  to  the  rounded,  juicy 
comprehensive  fruits  of  a  genuine  culture,  as  the  fieshless 
skeleton  in  an  anatomical  museum  bears  to  the  perfect,  con- 
scious organism  of  a  living  man  !  So  many  problems  in 
Arithmetic,  so  many  questions  in  the  technics  of  Grammar, 
so  many  from  the  innumerable  details  in  most  Geographies, 
so  many  on  the  bald  facts  of  History,  and  a  number  of 
words  to  be  spelled,  culled  from  among  the  hardest  to  be 
found  in  the  pages  of  the  Spelling  Book  or  the  Dictionary, — 
how  meagre  and  fruitless  they  all  are,  as  exponents  of  that 
culture  which  enlarges  and  furnishes  the  mind,  inspires  it 
with  the  power  to  think,  confers  a  mastery  over  language, 
that  subtle,  mysterious  instrument  of  thought,  and  brings  it 
into  communication  with  the  facts  and  processes  of  the  work- 
ing, progressive  world,  in  which  it  is  soon  to  take  its  part  I 
High  School  examinations  as  now  conducted,  emphasize 
and  make  imperative  all  that  detailed  lumber  of  the  text 
books,  which,  if  useful  to  be  learned  at  all,  is  so  only  to 
serve  as  a  stepping  Itone  to  something  broader  and  higher  j 
becoming  worse  than  useless  after  the  higher  point  has  been 
reached ;  and  therefore  then  to  be  dismissed  into  oblivion. 

And  they  necessitate  a  rigid  adherence  by  the  teachers  of 
the  Grammar  Schools  to  the  mere  technics  of  the  several 
test  studies,  at  the  expense  of  all  others;  and  of  the  vitality 
and  highest  usefulness  of  those  studies  themselves.  It  is 
in  vain  to  inveigh  against  this ;  it  is  inevitable.  I  defy  a 
teacher,  however  conscientious,  before  whom  is  forever  loom- 
ing up  the  apparition  of  an  arbitrary  ordeal  by  which  his 


11 

whole  efficiency  is  to  be  estimated,  to  do  justice  to  himself  or 
his  scholars.  He  were  more  than  human  to  disregard  its 
cramping  requisitions.  Mr.  Philbrick,  the  accomplished  and 
efficient  Superintendent  of  the  Boston  Schools,  to  whose 
enlightened  suggestions  we  are  all  so  much  indebted,  says  in 
one  of  his  recent  reports,  (first  putting  on  velvet  slippers, 
that  he  might  not  tread  too  heavily  on  anybody's  pedal  ex- 
cressences,)  "In  connection  with  the  annual  reports  on  the 
Girls'  High  and  Normal  School,  tables  have  sometimes  been 
printed,  showing  the  percentage  of  correct  answers  at  the 
examination  for  admission  by  the  candidates  from  each 
Grammar  School.  Their  operation  is  attended  with  serious 
evils.  They  show  the  relative  rank  of  the  examinees  in 
only  about  half  of  the  studies  prescribed  for  the  First  Class 
of  the  Grammar  Schools.  The  consequence  is  that  the 
Master  who  is  bent  on  securing  a  high  percentage  on  the 
test  studies,  must  either  neglect  the%  non  test  branches  or 
overtask  his  pupils.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Master  who  aims 
to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  the  regulations  and  to  teach  all  the 
branches  fairly  and  faithfully,  may  find  himself  placed  low 
down  on  the  comparative  scale."  Here  we  get  an  insight  to 
the  state  of  affairs,  not  in  Boston  alone  but  everywhere.  It 
is  not  the  comparative  tables  to  which  Mr.  Philbrick  refers, 
that  are  specially  in  fault.  Masters  of  Grammar  Schools 
everywhere,  are  compelled  to  confine  themselves  rigidly  to 
the  test  studies,  lest,  by  some  flaw  of  preparation,  their 
scholars  should  fail  of  success  at  the  examinations ;  without 
necessarily  presupposing  any  spirit  of  competition  for  a  very 
high  percentage.  Elsewhere,  with  one  slipper  off,  Mr.  Phil- 
brick  writes  :  "Most  teachers  feel  obliged  not  only  to  confine 
themselves  to  the  text  books,  but  to  teach  every  thing  in 
them  ;  or  rather  to  require  the  pupils  to  learn  every  thing  in 
them.  By  this  ill  contrivance  the  best  teachers  are  ham- 
pered and  cramped.  They  are  constrained,  against  their 


12 

better  judgment,  to  teach  many  things  which  they  deem 
useless,  and  to  teach  in  a  manner  which  they  deem  not  the 
best  manner.  Some  are  driven  by  it  to  perpetrate  the  two 
grave  educational  offences  of  cramming  and  high  pressure, 
which  generally  go  hand  in  hand."  True,  every  word.  But 
no  detailed  programme  of  instruction  will  remedy  the  evil, 
as  Mr.  Philbrick  suggests.  Programme  or  no  programme, 
so  long  as  the  character  of  examinations  for  admission  to 
the  High  Schools  remains  what  it  is,  technical  teaching, 
cramming  and  high  pressure  will  inevitably  characterize 
Grammar  School  instruction.  For  every  question  missed  at 
such  an  examination  involves  the  loss  of  a  certain  number 
of  per  cent,  from  the  summing  up,  and  proportionately  perils 
the  result.  And  since  it  is  uncertain-what  questions  may  be 
asked,  what  out  of  the  way  details  may  be  called  for,  there- 
fore every  rule,  problem,  method  and  formulary  in  the 
crowded  Arithmetic,  every  definition,  exception  and  rigma- 
role in  the  lumbered  Grammar,  and  all  the  insignificant 
details  jn  the  old  style  of  Geographies,  from  "What  is  the 
North  fork  of  Musquash  River?"  all  through  to  "Which 
way  is  Bungtown  from  Sleepy  Hollow  ?"  must  be  forced 
into  the  minds  of  the  candidates.  There  is  no  margin  for 
the  operation  of  any  intelligent  principle  of  selection  and 
abbreviation,  so  as  to  make  room  for  other  important  studies. 
Mr.  Philbrick  says,  moreover,  that  far  too  much  time  is 
wasted  on  spelling  in  the  upper  classes  of  the  Boston  Gram- 
mar Schools.  But  can  he  expect  anything  else,  so  long  as 
progress  in  spelling  is  to  be  tested  by  a  list  of  the  most  dif- 
ficult words  in  the  spelling  book,  instead  of  by  the  correctness 
of  orthography  exhibited  by  the  examinees  in  their  examina- 
tion papers  throughout? 

Such  are  the  consequences  of  the  existing  state  of  things. 
So  does  it  come  about  that  scholars  from  schools  taught  by 
men  of  comparatively  narrow  ability  and  loan  acquirements, 


13 

are  found  to  pass  through  the  High  School  examinations, 
year  after  year,  with  superior  eclat  to  those  from  the  schools 
taught  by  men  of  depth  of  power  and  breadth  of  culture. 
Because  the  former  are  willing  slaves  of  the  text  books,  to 
deprive  them  of  which,  indeed,  is  to  render  them  impotent; 
while  the  latter  would  scorn  to  let  the  text  book  become 
their  master;  and  fretting  against  the  shackles  imposed  on 
them,  and  yielding  to  the  inspiration  of  their  nobler  ideals, 
sometimes  break  away  from  their  constraints,  and  teach  for 
a  while  in  freedom  and  joy,  at  the  expense  of  the  formal 
technics  and  cumbrous  details,  so  essential  to  nominal  suc- 
cess. There  is  nothing  that  the  live,  competent  Grammar 
School  teachers  so  long  for,  as  freedom  ;  freedom  to  be 
themselves,  and  to  teach  according  to  their  conscience  and 
their  power. 

Thus  it  is  that  our  Grammar  Schools,  so  excellent  in  most 
respects,  are  in  part  mistaught;  that  the  scholars  are  crammed 
with  much  that  is  worse  than  useless,  and  deprived  of 
much  that  is  needful  to  a  well  rounded  culture.  "I  have 
shown  the  proximate  cause  of  the  evil.  There  is  a  remoter 
cause ;  for  our  High  School  examinations  have  not  become 
what  they  are  without  anterior,  shaping  influences;  and 
those  influences  must  be  thoroughly  considered,  if  we  would 
institute  a  radical  cure  for  the  evil.  And  to  that  point  I 
shall  devote  the  remainder  of  this  essay. 

The  root  of  the  whole  matter  is  this.  There  has  prevailed 
in  Massachusetts,  from  time  immemorial,  a  very  false  notion 
as  to  what  the  object  of  study  is,  and  also  as  to  the  relative 
values  of  the  studies  usually  pursued  in  our  Grammar 
Schools.  Take,  for  instance,  one  from  among  the  red 
school-houses  at  the  forks  of  the  roads,  fifty  years  ago,  on 
an  examination  day  after  the  winter  school.  The  grand, 
paramount  requisition  of  the  Committee,  as  to  the  First 
Class,  is,  that  they  shall  be  able  to  "do  their  sums."  If  they 


14 

show  themselves  quick  at  figures,  if  they  can  readily  solve 
any  problem  that  may  be  given  in  Fractions,  Rule  of  Three, 
Interest  and  Square  Root,  the  master's  reputation  is  well 
nigh  established,  however  signally  they  may  fail  in  every- 
thing else.  But  if,  when  called  up  in  Grammar,  they  can 
promptly  parse  the  knotty  passage  in  Milton  or  Cowper,  that 
the  Committee  has  spent  half  the  previous  night  in  carefully 
selecting  for  the  purpose  of  trying  them,  the  appropriate  rules 
and  definitions  being  reeled  off  memoriter  without  tripping, 
and  when  exercised  in  spelling,  succeed  with  such  words 
as  Phthisic,  Poignancy,  Heresiarch,  Synecdoche,  Caterpillar, 
Diaphragm,  Epicycloid  and  the  like,  the  master's  fortune  is 
fairly  made.  It  will  add  to  his  laurels,  if  the  class  are  well 
versed  in  the  details  of  the  Geography,  and  can  read  and 
write  pretty  well.  But  these  latter  branches  are  com- 
paratively immaterial.  The  test  studies  have  been  satisfac- 
torily gone  through  with.  The  minds  of  the  scholars  have 
been  admirably  drilled.  The  school  is  a  splendid  success ! 

Now  those  same  scholars  may  not  be  able  to  take  up  a 
passage  in  an  unfamiliar  book,  especially  if  it  be  a  didactic 
treatise,  or  a  dignified  history  or  biography,  without  blunder- 
ing at  every  other  word.  They  may  penetrate  into  the  real 
sense  and  sentiment  of  the  passages  they  have  been  drilled 
to  parse — no  deeper  than  a  baby  in  arms  penetrates  into  the 
meaning  of  the  book  that  he  is  holding  upside  down.  They 
may  be  incompetent  to  write  an  ordinary  letter  of  friendship 
or  business  in  a  creditable  way.  They  may  have  acquired 
no  habit  whatever  of  making  a  practicable  application  of 
what  they  have  been  learning  to  the  everyday  affairs  of  life. 
As  for  the  principles  of  natural  science  and  the  arts  in  their 
relation  to  common  things,  they  may  be  so  ignorant  of  them, 
as  not  to  know  how  to  explain  a  single  process  in  ordinary 
'household  or  business  affairs.  And  as  for  a  love  of  literature, 
a  longing  to  communicate  with  the  master  minds  of  the  race 


15 

through  their  works,  and  loving  glimpses  into  the  glorious 
world  of  ideas,  such  references  are  to  their  ears  very  much 
like  so  much  Greek  to  a  Pawnee  Indian.  But  what  of  all 
this  ?  Can  they  not  cypher  and  s'pell  and  parse  ? 

Now  in  all  candor  and  honesty,  has  the  ancient  estimate 
of  the  ends  of  culture,  which  turned  out  on  society  such 
crude,  ilJconditioned  material,  after  years  of  golden  opportu- 
nity misused  and  wasted,  been  greatly  modified  to  the 
present  day  ?  Looking  at  the  matter  in  the  light  of  principles 
of  action,  are  not  things  going  on  in  very  much  the  same 
fashion  in  the  red  school-houses  at  the  forks  of  the  roads,  or 
their  modernized  substitutes,  and  according  to  more  refined 
patterns,  in  even  the  best  schools  of  our  cities  ?  Do  not 
Arithmetic  and  Grammar  engross  the  largest  and  choicest 
fraction  of  the  working  hours  of  the  most  of  our  Grammar 
Schools  ?  Is  the  study  of  language,  as  the  vehicle  of  the 
mind,  anywhere  systematically  and  thoroughly  pursued? 
Do  we  find  a  place  appointed  in  many  of  our  Massachusetts 
Grammar  School  systems,  for  that  indispensable  branch  of 
culture,  which  embraces  the  application  of  the  principles  of 
science  and  art  to  the  facts  of  Common  life  ?  And  did  I 
overstate,  in  a  former  connection,  the  narrow  technical  char- 
acter of  the  most  of  our  teaching,  and  its  dreary  prescription 
of  useless  details  ? 

In  regard  t<4this  last  point,  technical,  detailed  teaching,  it 
occurs  to  me  to  make  a  supposition.  Suppose  that  our 
School  'Committees,  this  year,  instead  of  holding  the  exami- 
nation for  admission  to  the  High  School,  in  July,  as  usual, 
immediately  subsequent  to  the  drill  of  the  school  rooms,  had 
postponed  it  for  six  or  eight  weeks,  until  after  the  summer 
vacation.  Consternation  would  have  immediately  pervaded 
the  whole  Grammar  School  corps  of  teachers.  Impassioned 
remonstrances  would  have  been  heard  on  every  hand.  "It  is 
unjust."  "It  will  be  ruinous,"  they  would  have  cried ;  "it 


16 

will  drop  down  the  results  of  the  examination,  fifty  per  cent. 
After  so  long  an  interval  of  playtime,  the  candidates  will  have 
forgotten  half  they  knew."  As  things  are,  nothing  more 
likely  in  the  world!  And  does  it  never  occur  to  the  minds 
of  Committees  and  teachers,  who  combine  to  have  the  ex- 
aminations supervene,  without  interval,  upon  the  drill  of  the 
school  rooms,  so  that  the  knowledge  of  the  candidates  shall 
be  fresh,  that  what  would  drop  away  from  them,  did  an  in- 
terval occur,  is  what  they  have  learned  merely  by  rote,  what 
their  minds  have  never  assimilated,  what  perhaps  they  have 
not  more  than  half  understood,  and  what  has  evidently 
usurped  the  place  of  better  things  that  would  have  affected  a 
permanent  lodgment  ?  Does  it  not  occur  that  what  an  exami- 
nation, held  after  such  an  interval,  would  present  as  the 
amount  of  the  mental  furnishing  of  the  candidates'  minds  is 
the  sum  of  what  is  to  be  of  future  advantage  to  them,  and  that 
what  they  would  have  forgotten  would  be  the  trash  that  na- 
ture kindly  provides  shall  drop  speedily  ont  of  the  way?  Is 
there  not  something  actually  ludicrous  in  the  thought  that  ex- 
aminations for  High  Schools  must  be  hurried  up,  because  a 
good  deal  of  what  has  been  learned,  through  manifold  and 
long  protracted  throes  of  preparation  for  those  terrible  or- 
deals, wont  keep  long  enough  to  bear  the  shock  of  a  few 
weeks  of  playtime,  that  will  go  sifting  among  its  living  and 
dead  details,  just  as  an  autumn  wind  sifts  among  the  green 
and  the  sere  and  yellow  leaves  of  a  tree,  aud  takes  the  latter 
away  on  its  wings  to  the  ground?  What  of  these  forgotten 
things,  when,  the  playtime  having  occurred,  the  examinees 
take  their  places  in  the  High  School? 

Returning  to  our  search  after  the  root  of  these  evils,  we 
can  easily  trace  back  our  traditional  system  of  study  to  its 
origin.  It  came  into  being  ages  ago,  when  nothing  resem- 
bling true  mental  science  existed,  and  when  what  is  now 
understood  by  the  term,  knowledge,  was  almost  utterly  un- 


17 

known.  Science  had  established  no  alliances  with  nature ; 
and  the  work  of  the  scholar  was  limited  to  subjective  mental 
processes,  under  the  idea  that  mental  discipline  constitutes 
the  chief  end  of  Education.  Thus  came -it,  that  lines  of 
study  have  been  instituted  and  perpetuated,  merely  to  per- 
form the  vicarious  office  of  training  the  intellectual  faculties ; 
so  that  a  good  part  of  the  work  of  our  school  rooms  has 
little  or  no  practical  relation  to  the  affairs  of  life. 

But  the  traditional  system  has  had  its  day.  The  powers 
and  offices  of  the  mind  are  understood.  Science  has  opened 
up  glorious  fields  of  knowledge,  and  man  knows  himself  to 
have  been  created  for  action,  and  demands  that  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young  shall  be  a  preparation  for  action.  And 
promptly  rallying  around  the  Spirit  of  the  Age,  as  we  hear 
it  challenging  our  present  course  of  Grammar  School  in- 
struction, with  all  the  artifices  that  come  of  it,  let  us  pass 
that  course  of  study  in  intelligent  review. 

As  has  been  said,  Arithmetic  and  Grammar  now  engross 
the  most  of  the  working  hours  of  our  schools,  not  so  much 
for  their  intrinsic  value,  as  for  the  vicarious  part  that  they 
are  expected  to  perform  in  disciplining  the  mind.  The 
Mathematics,  being  an  exact  study,  has  the  credit  of  train- 
ing the  reasoning  powers  better  than  any  other  branch,  and 
Grammar  is  held  in  special  honor,  on  the  ground  that  the 
study  of  the  structure  of  language  best  disciplines  the  mem- 
ory and  judgment.  Now  the  first  thing  to  be  done,  in  order 
to  a  fair  estimate  of  the  relative  values  of  Grammar  School 
studies,  is  to  dislodge  from  our  minds  every  lingering  prej- 
udice that  it  is  needful  to  carry  forward  any  vicarious  exer- 
cises of  the  kind.  We  want  to  settle  fairly  and  squarely 
down  upon  the  principle,  that  the  mind  will  get  discipline 
enough,  in  view  of  the  various  other  indispensable  demands  upon 
the  scholar's  time,  from  any  study  whatever,  which  is  worthy  the 
name  of  a  study,  that  it  systematically  and  thoroughly  pursues. 

m 


18 

In  another's  words,  "whatever  is  traversed  by  principles  and 
capable  of  methods,"  disciplines  the  mind.  And  as  this  may 
be  affirmed  of  any  and  all  the  branches  taught  in  our  Gram- 
mar Schools,  all",  so  far  as  this  point  is  concerned,  may  be 
placed  on  the  same  foundation.  Bigoted  adherents  of  the 
traditional  system  will  assail  us  with  the  cant  of  their  school 
of  thought,  and  with  shaking  heads,  cry  in  dolorous  tones: 
"Abridge  Arithmetic  and  Grammar,  those  indispensable  in- 
struments of  discipline  !  It  is  to  take  the  very  heart  out  of 
your  system  of  education !"  They  must  not  be  heeded. 
Their  day  has  gone  by.  It  would  amaze  many  of  this  school, 
I  think,  to  read,  if  they  could  do  so  with  unprejudiced  minds, 
the  dissertations  of  such  eminent  thinkers  and  metaphysi- 
cians as  Goethe,  Mad.  de  Stael,  Pascal,  Niemeyer,  Marcel, 
Dugald  Stewart,  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  others,  on  the 
use  of  Arithmetic  and  Grammar  as  instruments  to  discipline 
the  mind  ;  and  their  concurrent  and  emphatic  conclusions, 
that,  when  allowed  paramount  scope  in  any  system  of  edu- 
cation, for  this  purpose,  they  are  positively  injurious  to  the 
mental  powers. 

But  we  have  no  time  to  follow  out  such  a  line  of  thought. 
Enough  for  us  these  two  points;  first,  that  sufficient 
mental  discipline  will  be  acquired  from  any  ordinary  study 
that  is  systematically  and  faithfully  pursued  ;  second,  that 
Arithmetic  and  Grammar  now  subordinate  studies  to  them- 
selves that  are  of  superior  importance,  and  crowd  out  en- 
tirely others  that  are  essential  to  the  course  of  culture 
demanded  by  modern  life ;  and  these  things  being  so,  we 
have  no  time  to  spend  on  any  study  for  vicarious  purposes 
alone. 

In  the  admirable  words  of  Professor  Atkinson  ;  "Practical 
usefulness — and  by  that  term,  I  do  not  mean  the  mere  vulgar 
stomach  and  pocket  filling  with  which  it  is  so  often  con- 
founded, but  practical  usefulness  in  a  high  and  generous 


19 

sense — the  serving  of  all  worthy  and  noble  objects,  the  en- 
deavor to  make  our  earth  a  better  dwelling  place,  and  man  a 
nobler  dweller  in  it — practical  usefulness  in  this  sense, 
should  be  the  very  aim  of  all  our  teaching;  and  study  can 
never  lose  sight  of  it  without  most  imminent  peril  of  becom- 
ing worthless  for  discipline  as  well  as  for  use." 

So  then,  we  are  to  excise  from  every  study  whatever  part 
of  it  has  been  pursued  for  the  sake  of  its  drill,  and  not  of  its 
utility;  and  we  are  ready  to  take  a  fair  start,  and  to  ask 
what  study  it  is,  that  henceforth  should  be  regarded  as  first 
in  rank  ;  to  be  cared  for  with  jealous  interest  and  unintermit- 
ted  enthusiasm  ;  and  be  accorded  a  paramount  place  in  all 
test  examinations  ? 

V 

That  foremost  place  is  now  occupied  by  Arithmetic. 
Said  a  prominent  educational  official  to  me,  not  long  ago  ; 
"Our  schools  are  sacrificed  to  Arithmetic."  I  would  have 
Arithmetic  give  this  place  of  honor  to  the  Study  of  Lan- 
guage; study  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishment  in  the 
knowledge  and  use  of  our  mother  tongue.  For  this  lies  at 
the  base  of  all  learning,  and  is  the  key  to  the  knowledge  of 
all  other  branches.  Even  Arithmetic,  although  it  possesses 
its  own  peculiar  symbols,  would  not  be  able  to  interpret 
those  symbols  to  the  mind,  if  it  were  not  for  the  assistance 
of  words,  those  mystic  instruments  of  thought.  Indeed, 
when  considered  in  its' broader  and  higher  application  to 
universal  phenomena,  the  usefulness  of  language  in  its  ser- 
vice becomes  even  superior  to  that  of  its  own  special  sym* 
bols :  and  to  be  deficient  in  language  is  to  be  debarred  from 
its  intelligent  pursuit.  Moreover,  in  every  word  that  may  be 
garnered  up  in  the  mind's  vocabulary,  whose  meaning  and 
uses  are  clearly  apprehended,  one  has  the  skeleton  of  a 
living  idea  ;  yes,  the  starting  point,  perhaps,  of  a  whole  train 
of  ideas.  Through  these  wonderful  symbols  it  is,  that  the 
priceless  stores  of  the  thought  of  past  ages  have  been 


20 

preserved  to  bless  mankind,  aud  constitute  the  world's  trans- 
cendent treasures.  Through  them  it  is,  that  mind  com- 
municates to  kindred  mind  its  glowing  conceptions;  that 
soul  kindles  soul  with  responsive  feeling,  and  that  the  world 
is  glorified  by  the  development  of  the  unseen  sphere  lying 
just  outside  the  world  of  sense,  which  is  its  invisible  com- 
plement and  counterpart,  and  opens  out  our  higher  powers 
to  God  and  eternity.  Indeed,  it  is  a  mooted  point,  whether 
we  can  think  at  all  without  words;  and  in  a  practical  light, 
it  must  be  conceded  that  we  cannot.  According,  then,  to 
one's  grasp  of  language,  his  knowledge  of  words,  their  sig- 
nificance and  uses,  will  be,  in  general  terms,  the  range  and 
progress  of  his  mind.  Just  so  far  as  we  extend  the  intelli- 
gent vocabulary  of  our  children,  we  not  only  better  furnish 
them  for  every  study  to  which  they  may  devote  themselves, 
but  enable  them  to  interpret  to  themselves  and  others,  the 
conceptions  and  aspirations  that  ennoble  their  being,  and 
introduce  them  to  new  scenery  in  the  universe  of  ideas.  We 
put  them  in  the  way  to  realize  the  thought  that  was  in 
Edward  Everett's  mind,  when  he  said :  "Instead  of  useful 
studies,  I  plead  for  the  noble  inutility  of  generous  studies  ; 
rather  let  me  call  it,  for  the  ineffable  beauty,  dignity,  loveli- 
ness and  priceless  worth  of  the  meditations  of  the  thoughtful, 
well  instructed  mind,  soaring  on  the  wings  of  conscious,  nay, 
better,  of  its  unconscious  powers  and  susceptibilities,  far 
above  the  region  of  utilitarian  appliances,  to  the  heaven  of 
thought,  imagination  and  taste." 

And  after  all,  what  better  mental  discipline  and  direction 
can  there  be,  than  to  bring  the  mind  into  intercourse  with 
the  great  thoughts  of  the  best  writers,  and  thus  induce  a 
a  love  of  profitable  reading  ? 

What  this  study  of  language  should  be,  must  suggest 
itself,  in  the  main,  to  every  intelligent  mind.  It  is  not 
Reading  alone ;  it  is  what  we  call  Grammar  scarcely  at  all. 


21 

God  speed  the  time  when  the  useless  stuff  that  is  drilled 
into  our  children's  heads  under  the  name  of  Grammar,  shall 
lumber  and  cumber  them  no  longer!  It  is  not  what  is  usually 
understood  by  the  term  "Analysis."  When  the  authors  of 
the  current  text  books  so  labelled,  sat  themselves  down  to 
make  them,  all  the  bells  should  have  been  tolled  in  anticipa- 
tory funereal  lamentation  for  the  hours  to  be  buried  under  so 
much  dreary  waste  !  Reading,  properly  conducted,  is  an  in- 
dispensable exercise.  But  it  is  too  frequently  perverted  from 
its  channels  of  highest  advantage.  It  is  often  made  only  a 
drill  in  modulation  ;  and  the  teacher  will  expend  all  the  time 
devoted  to  it  on  a  very  few  rhetorical  pieces,  thus  in  good 
part,  negativing  its  splendid  instrumentality  in  the  study  of 
language.  I  could  take  up  the  whole  series  of  reading 
books  assigned  to  our  schools  of  all  the  grades,  and  contain 
them  between  my  hands,  if  held  only  six  inches  apart. 
This,  ridiculous  as  the  fact  appears  in  some  regards,  is  the 
sum  total  of  the  reading  to  be  gone  through  with  in  all  the 
school  hours  of  childhood,  to  familiarize  the  children  with 
literature,  acquaint  them  with  the  classic  varieties  of  style, 
enlarge  their  vocabularies,  and  by  introducing  them  to  the 
master-pieces  of  the  language  in  prose  and  verse,  enkindle 
that  love  of  good  reading  which  shall  make  choice  books 
dearer  than  dollars  to  them  all  their  lives.  And  yet,  in  some 
localities,  not  the  half  of  each  of  these  books  is  read  as  the 
scholars  pass  from  class  to  class,  except  perhaps  the  Primer; 
so  entirely  is  the  Reading  exercise  concentrated  on  a  few. 
favorite  pieces.  To  practice  modulation  is  essential.  I 
would  have  due  time  devoted  to  it.  It  is  well  that  the  sen- 
timent and  feeling  of  every  passage  read  in  school  should  be 
thoroughly  appreciated  and  expressed.  But  not  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  paramount  purpose  of  the  Reading  exercise, 
which  is  the  study  of  language.  That  demands'  the  passing 
over  of  as  much  ground  as  possible,  intelligently  of  course, 


22 

in  order  to  make  a  great  variety  of  words  familiar  to  both 
the  eye  and  sense,  as  symbols  of  ideas.  And  in  addition,  as 
Edwards  in  the  analytic  lessons  of  his  new  Reader  has  ad- 
mirably suggested,  the  reading  lesson  ought  to  be  exhaustive 
in  inquiry  as  to  all  historic,  biographic  and  other  allusions; 
to  verbal  definitions,  distinctions  and  derivations;  to  refer- 
ences to  facts  in  science  and  art ;  to  the  nature  of  the 
thoughts,  the  character  of  the  style,  and  the  peculiarities  of 
the  rhetorical  imagery. 

And  such  exercises  might  be  diversified,  with  exceeding 
interest  and  profit,  by  others,  to  test  the  scholars'  power  over 
language  ;  such  as  various  methods  of  writing  Compositions; 
imperfect  sentences,  dictated  by  the  teacher,  to  be  completed 
by  the  scholars,  so  as  to  make  good  sense  couched  in  finished 
forms  of  expression  ;  lists  of  words  assigned,  to  be  wrought 
into  appropriate  sentences ;  passages  dictated,  to  try  the 
power  of  transcribing  accurately  from  others'  lips.  With 
such  operations  in  language  and  the  like,  incalculable  inter- 
est may  be  imparted  to  the  work  of  the  school  room,  and 
superior  results  accomplished,  in  enlarging  and  furnishing 
the  mind. 

But,  as  may  plainly  be  seen,  room  must  be  made  for  such 
exercises  by  a  different  economy  from  what  now  prevails  in 
the  distribution  of  school  time. 

Arithmetic,  to  which  we  now  specially  turn,  must  have  its 
due  place  in  the  new  order  of  things.  It  must  not  be 
slighted  in  any  regard.  The  great  problem  is,  how  to 
introduce  greater  freedom  and  find  room  for  studies  now 
neglected,  without  abating  one  jot  of  that  orderly  system 
and  thoroughness  which  are  the  glory  of  our  schools.  Arith- 
metic, dealing  as  it  does  with  conceptions  of  quantity  under 
various  forms  of  expression,  and  with  a  various  application 
to  universal  phenomena,  is  based  on  solid  utility  and  must 
be  accurately  and  systematically  taught.  But  this  may  be 


23 

abundantly  secured  I  think,  with  the  expenditure  of  half  the 
average  time  now  devoted  to  the  subject.  From  four  to  five 
hours  a  week  is  ample.  The  abridgment  is  to  be  effected  by 
cutting  off,  in  the  first  place,  all  those  exercises  that  are  im- 
posed, only  for  the  sake  of  the  drill  they  afford ;  second,  all 
duplicate  modes  of  arriving  at  the  same  results ;  third,  all 
processes  that  however  theoretically  valuable,  are  likely  to  be 
called  into  requisition  in  the  affairs  of  life  so  seldom  as  to  be 
practically  useless;  and  above  all  things  else,  much  of  the 
everlasting  cyphering,  that  is  carried  on  in  many  schools. 
For,  as  Mr.  G.  B.  Emerson  has  humorously  said,  "As  to  the 
idea  that  difficult  operations  in  Arithmetic  are  a  valuable 
exercise  of  the  mind,  the  fact  that  Babbage's  machine  will 
perform  some  of  the  most  difficult  operations  and  print  the 
result,  in  less  time  than  it  will  take  the  most  skilful  reckoner 
to  go  through  them  once,  gives  us  somewhat  of  an  answer. 
If  the  doing  well  what  a  machine  will  do  better  is  a  valuable 
exercise  for  the  mind,  then  the  working  out  of  difficult  oper- 
ations in  Arithmetic  is  a  valuable  exercise." 

Again,  I  am  quite  confident  that  much  valuable  time  may 
be  secured  to  other  studies  and  nothing  whatever  lost  to  the 
mind,  by  postponing  the  systematic  study  of  Mental  Arith- 
metic to  a  much  later  period  in  the  school  course  than  it  is 
now  imposed.  As  now  apportioned,  I  believe  that  it  pain- 
fully anticipates  the  ability  of  the  scholars  to  understand  it. 
The  analytical  formulas  by  which  beginners  are  required  to 
explain  its  problems,  are  usually  forced  upon  them  through  a 
dreary  process  of  iteration  and  reiteration,  and  recited  as  an 
act  of  memory  that  has  scarcely  a  gleam  of  intelligence 
behind  it.  Now  if  I  have  rightly  observed  the  course  of 
nature,  she  does  not  furnish  forth  the  mind  for  an  intelligent 
comprehension  of  such  processes  until  at  least  eleven  or 
twelve  years  of  age.  She  is  satisfied  with  her  children,  if 
up  to  that  time,  they  are  busy  with  syo*  maUrara  iasg»ther- 


24 

ing  into  their  mental  receptacles  data  for  the  reason  to  use, 
when,  more  mature,  it  shall  be  capable  of  severer  logical 
effort.  Our  scholars  must  work,  work  hard.  Study  is  good 
for  nothing  that  does  not  involve  hard  work.  But  there  is  all 
the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  activities  of  a  mind 
that  is  healthfully  put  upon  its  energies  within  the  sphere  of 
its  capacity,  and  those  that  it  is  forced  to  exert  in  a  painful 
struggle  to  grasp  what  is  beyond  its  capacity.  Make  a 
child  open  its  eyes  to  the  light,  if  the  light  be  before  them  ; 
but  for  humanity's  sake  and  conscience's  sake,  do  not  require 
it  to  see  when  there  is  no  light!  Apply  the  received  prin- 
ciple that  the  concrete  should  precede  the  abstract,  to  this 
study  as  well  as  others. 

In  my  views  on  this  point  I  do  not  expect  support  from 
many  of  our  educators.  For  I  presume  that  it  is  a  settled 
principle  with  the  most,  that  Intellectual  Arithmetic  should 
precede  Written  in  the  order  of  study.  Thus  Mr.  G.  B.  Em- 
erson, in  one  of  those  delightful  papers  that  he  read  before 
the  Institute  of  Social  Science  last  winter,  when  pleading  for 
the  abridgment  of  the  study  of  Arithmetic,  takes  care  to  say, 
"The  arrangements  made  for  teaching  Mental  Arithmetic 
and  ready  reckoning  in  the  Primary  Schools  and  the  lower 
classes  of  the  Grammar  Schools,  are  very  valuable."*  I  am 
therefore  all  the  more  gratified  to  be  supported  by  such  a 
mathematician  and  educator,  as  President  Hill.  In  a  note 
received  from  him  a  few  days  ago,  he  says,  "When  I  went 
to  Waltham,  boys  began  Arithmetic  at  the  age  of  six  or 
seven  years,  and  studied  it  about  twelve  hours  a  week  for 
eight  years.  I  kept  them  back  until  the  age  of  ten,  and  then 
let  them  study  it  eight  hours  a  week  for  five  years.  Thus  I 
reduced  the  time  in  the  ratio  of  ninety-six  to  forty" 

*Mr.  Emerson  has  informed  me  that  he  did  not  intend  to  be  thus  under- 


25 

"The  consequence  was,  that  the  scholars,  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  knew  a  great  deal  more  of  Arithmetic  than  they  did 
formerly.  The  change  was  principally  in  beginning  with 
the  mere  counting  of  beans,  etc.;  then  taking  Written 
Arithmetic,  and  finishing  with  Colburn's  First  Lessons,  re- 
serving this  last  book  to  the  age  of  from  thirteen  to  fifteen."* 

This  I  am  satisfied  is  the  true  order  of  study  in  this 
branch  ;  and  if,  in  accordance  with  it,  we  relieve  the  teachers 
of  the  lower  classes  in  the  Grammar  Schools  from  those  for- 
mal exercises  in  Mental  Arithmetic  that  are  now  so  unin- 
telligent and  tasking,  and  consume  such  an  amount  of  time, 
and  introduce  the  abbreviations  in  the  course  of  Written 
Arithmetic  that  have  been  mentioned,  at  least  half  the  time 
now  devoted  to  this  study  may  be  diverted  to  other  branches, 
without  the  slightest  disregard  of  its  legitimate  claims. 

In  the  next  place,  how  much  time  shall  we  take  away 
from  Grammar,  as  now  studied?  I  answer  all  the  time 
given  to  it  as  as  a  systematic  text  book  study  in  the  lower 
classes,  and  a  good  part  of  that  now  given  to  it  in  the  upper 
classes.  The  lower  classes  in  a  Grammar  School  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  subject,  as  an  express  scientific  pur- 
suit, and  all  that  it  is  worth  the  while  of  the  upper  classes 
to  learn  about  it,  may  be  contained  in  twenty  octavo  pages. 
What  are  the  elaborated  exercises  in  Grammar  for,  that  are 
going  on  in  so  many  of  our  schools,  day  after  day,  through 
nearly  all  the  classes,  in  definitions,  exceptions,  parsing  and 
what  not  ?  Can  anybody  tell  me  ?  The  most  common  def- 
inition of  Grammar  is,  that  it  is  the  art  of  speaking  and 
writing  the  English  language  correctly.  Does  it  fulfil  either 

•President  Hill  says  in  the  preface  to  his  "First  Lessons  in  Geometry ;"  "a 
powerful  logical  drill,  like  Colburn's  admirable  First  Lessons  in  Arithmetic  is 
surely  out  of  place  in  the  hands  ot  a  child  whose  powers  of  observation  and 
conception  have  as  yet  received  no  training  whatever." 


26 

of  these  promises  ?  In  the  first  place,  does  it  teach  us  to 
speak  correctly  ?  By  no  means.  Improprieties  of  speech 
are  acquired  by  habit,  not  through  ignorance  of  Grammar ; 
and  are  to  be  overcome  by  habit,  not  rules.  Still  more,  the 
acquirement  of  the  graces  of  a  pure  and  refined  diction  is 
wholly  independent  of  the  systematic  learning  of  Grammar. 
It  is  to  be  gained  by  conversation  and  intercourse ;  and  the 
only  competent  school  for  it  is  good  society.  Practice,  in  this 
regard,  defies  scholarship.  It  is  both  amazing  and  amusing  to 
hear  a  class  of  scholars  go,  without  a  single  blunder,  through 
a  Grammar  lesson  on  improprieties  of  speech,  as  one  often 
may,  and  afterward  hear  some  of  them,  when  they  join  their 
schoolmates  at  play,  or  converse  in  their  homes,  freely  use 
without  the  least  consciousness  of  defect,  the  very  errors 
that  they  have  so  lately  been  prompt  to  correct  at  school ; 
the  habits  of  speech  of  their  intimates  governing  their  own 
habits,  and  not  the  rules  of  their  Grammars.  And  well  edu- 
cated teachers,  whose  home  associations  are  illiterate,  some- 
times unconsciously  use  fearfully  vicious  phraseology  even 
in  teaching  Grammar  itself. 

Again,  does  Grammar  teach  us  to  write  correctly  ?  Not 
at  all.  Who,  when  he  is  about  to  write  on  any  theme, 
begins  to  construct  his  sentences  by  opening  his  Grammar 
and  poring  over  its  syntactic  formulas,  or  reproducing  them 
from  memory  ?  Who  ever  employed  one  word  in  a  certain 
connection,  and  a  second  word  in  a  still  different  connection, 
because  the  Grammar  had  defined  them  as  being  appropriate 
thus  and  so  ?  We  write  as  we  do,  each  according  to  his 
idiosyncracies  of  style,  because  our  thought  instinctively 
shapes  itself  in  the  words  and  phrases  we  use.  Nouns,  pro- 
nouns, verbs  and  adverbs  marshal  themselves  in  order  where 
we  pen  them,  because  they  satisfy  our  ear  and  sense  in  such 
order,  as  being  thus  appropriate  to  represent  our  thoughts  ; 
not  at  all,  because  they  are  the  subjects  of  the  nomenclature 


27 

of  Grammar.  It  is  both  profitable  and  interesting  to  study 
the  structure  of  our  language,  after  one  has  become  familiar 
with  its  powers  and  use.  Prior  to  that,  to  do  so  is  both  unintel- 
ligent and  illogical,  and  a  waste  of  time.  The  fact  is 
accordingly  very  striking,  but  not  at  all  singular,  that  the 
authors  of  the  master  pieces  of  prose  and  poetry  in  the  liter- 
ature of  every  land,  from  David  the  Psalmist  down  through 
Homer  and  Zenophon  and  Demosthenes,  Virgil  and  Cicero 
Dante  and  Petrarch,  Corneille,  Moliere,  La  Fontaine,  Bos- 
suet,  Shakspeare,  Milton,  Dryclen,  Addison,  Pope,  Johnson, 
Young,  Thompson,  Burns  and  others,  on  whose  sentences 
we  linger  as  on  the  strains  of  so  much  music,  never  learned 
a  word  of  Grammar,  and  wrote,  of  course,  without  the 
slightest  grammatical  aid.  In  addition,  the  most  eminent 
masters  of  language,  in  all  ages,  attribute  their  excellence  of 
style  not  io  the  study  of  Grammar,  but  to  the  study  and  im- 
itation of  the  best  writers  ;  and  it  is  a  fact  that  some  of  the 
best  grammarians  are  poor  enough  as  writers.* 

It  does  not  surprise  us,  after  being  apprised  of  these  facts, 
to  find  such  a  metaphysician  as  Locke,  writing,  "If  Grammar 
ought  to  be  taught  at  any  time,  it  ought  to  be  to  one  who 
can  speak  the  language  already  ;"  to  read  from  the  pen  of  an 
eminent  English  educator  such  words  as  these;  "Grammar 
is  the  science  of  language ;  and  in  following  the  process  of 
nature,  neither  individuals  nor  nations  arrive  at  the  science 
first.  A  language  is  spoken  and  poetry  written  before  either 
Grammar  or  Prosody  is  even  thought  of.  Therefore  as 
Grammar  was  made  after  language,  it  ought  to  be  taught 
after  language;"  to  find  Herbert  Spencer  remarking  on  "that 
intensely  stupid  custom  of  teaching  Grammar  to  children  ;" 
and  to  read  from  the  pen  of  Professor  Youmans,  this  sen- 

*See  a  striking  passage  in  Professor  Youmans'  admirable  book,  "The  culture 
demanded  by  modern  life." 


28 

fence ;  "The  usual  school  practice  of  thrusting  the  young 
into  the  Grammar,  even  of  their  native  tongue,  is  veil  known 
to  be  one  of  the  most  effectual  means  of  the  artificial  produc- 
tion of  stupidity."  I  might  quote  passages  of  equal  point 
from  many  a  writer  of  equal  note.  At  the  last  examination 
for  admission  to  the  New  Bedford  High  School,  four  of  the 
questions  on  the  Grammar  paper  were  of  a  technical  charac- 
ter, and  the  six  others  were  of  a  nature  to  test  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  candidates  in  the  knowledge  and  use  of  lan- 
guage. For  it  was  held  by  those  who  proposed  and  sanc- 
tioned them,  that  the  quality  of  a  harvest  is  of  more 
importance  than  any  inquiry  about  the  tools  by  which  it  has 
been  nurtured  and  gathered.  One  of  the  boys  disregarded 
the  four  technical  questions  altogether,  and  was  marked  zero 
accordingly.  But  he  surpassed  almost  all  his  compeers  in 
his  answers  to  the  remaining  questions,  evincing  an  ad- 
mirable freedom  and  power  of  thought,  and  correct  facility 
of  expression.  And  he  received  for  each  of  those  six  answers 
the  highest  mark,  ten.  Meeting  him  soon  after  the  examina- 
tion, I  said  "Master  H.  how  happened  it,  that  you  failed  on 
all  the  questions  about  your  Grammar  ?  "Oh  sir,"  replied 
he,  -"I  never  liked  Grammar,  I  never  thought  it  of  the 
slightest  use  to  me;  so  I  wouldn't  take  the  time  to  study  it, 
and  I  dont  know  anything  about  it."  Now  if  all  the  ques- 
tions on  the  Grammar  paper  had  been  technical,  as  is  often 
the  case,  this  boy  would  have  wholly  failed,  and,  branded  as 
an  ignoramus,  would  have  been  refused  entrance  into  the 
school  that  he  is  destined  to  adorn.  But  an  opportunity  was 
afforded  him  to  show  that  his  ignorance  of  Grammar  did  not 
prevent  him  from  writing  excellent  English.  And  I  am 
quite  sure  that,  in  like  manner,  it  will  matter  very  little  to 
any  of  us,  or  to  any  whom  we  may  teach,  so  far  as  cor- 
rect facility  in  the  use  of  language  is  concerned,  how  much 
or  how  little  of  Grammar  we  mav  know. 


29 

Therefore  T  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  without  qualification, 
that  attention  to  Grammar,  scientifically  and  methodically, 
as  a  regular  text  book  study,  anywhere  below  the  first  and 
second  classes  in  the  Grammar  School,  is  an  absolute  waste 
of  time.  Enough  for  the  other  classes  to  learn  can  be  orally 
communicated  in  connection  with  the  reading  lessons. 

And  the  study  will  prove  of  little  use  even  in  the  upper 
classes,  unless  there  shall  first  have  been  such  a  course  of 
study  of  language,  as  will  have  imparted  considerable  scope 
and  freedom  in  the  use  of  words,  the  construction  of  sentences 
and  the  expression  of  the  ideas. 

There  is  one  other  channel  of  instruction  for  which  we 
must  gain  time;  and  that  not  in  occasional  shreds  and 
patches,  but  at  stated  intervals  and  in  liberal  measure.  I 
mean  that  which  includes  the  scientific  and  artistic  principles 
and  truths,  which  have  direct  relation  to  the  ordinary  phenom- 
ena of  nature,  and  the  labors,  the  duties,  and  the  facts  of 
every  day  life.  After  all,  even  although  we  should  succeed 
in  reinforcing  the  High  Schools  many  fold,  it  would  still 
remain  a  fact  of  profound  significance  and  interest,  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  children  of  the  Commonwealth  will 
complete  their  education  in  the  Grammar  Schools.  The 
Grammar  Schools  are,  as  has  been  aptly  said,  the  people's 
colleges.  And  the  paramount  consideration  as  to  the  in- 
struction to  be  given  in  them  should  be,  not  as  now,  what  is 
requisite  to  fit  boys  and  girls  for  the  High  Schools,  but  what 
is  requisite  to  fit  them  for  the  busy  world  in  which  they  are 
soon  to  bear  their  part.  And  is  it  not  verily  a  crying  shame, 
that  there  should  be  so  much  unnecessary  drill  in  Arithmetic 
and  Grammar,  and  such  labored  memorizing  of  useless  facts 
in  Geography  and  History,  and  no  place  be  secured  to  the 
principles  and  truths  of  which  I  have  spoken?  There  are 
the  principles  of  physiology,  the  elements  of  the  natural 


30 

sciences,  the  properties  and  uses  of  matter,  of  air,  water,  light, 
heat,  minerals,  metals,  woods;  the  materials  and  processes  of 
the  mechanic  arts  ;  the  mechanical  powers,  the  uses  of  steam, 
the  construction  of  the  steam  engine  and  the  telegraph,  the 
materials  and  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics,  the  preparation 
of  food  ;  and  moreover,  the  nature,  functions  and  departments 
of  Government,  in  this  country  of  ours,  in  which  every  boy 
who  lives,  is,  in  a  few  years,  to  be  a  free,  voting,  responsible 
citizen:  all  these  topics,  that  are  inwrought  with  the  very  life 
and  soul  of  every  day's  thought  and  action;  shall  our  Gram- 
mar Schools  ignore  them,  or  only  take  them  up  fitfully  and 
imperfectly,  as  the  mere  by-play  of  the  regular  studies? 
What  more  imperatively  cries  out  for  revision  and  reform? 


Fellow  Teachers,  here  I  pause.  I  have  not  discussed  all 
the  studies  appropriate  to  our  Grammar  Schools,  nor  have  I 
said  anything  about  methods  of  teaching.  For  it  has  been 
my  only  purpose  to  consider  what  studies  might  judiciously 
be  omitted  or  abridged,  and  what  it  is  our  duty  to  introduce. 
And  the  reforms  that  I  have  advocated  once  effected,  our 
system  of  instruction  made  more  elastic  and  comprehen- 
sive, an  intelligent,  mental  development  substituted  for  vi- 
carious discipline  as  the  true  end  of  culture,  and  live  realities 
made  the  pleasurable  instruments  to  accomplish  what  dead 
technics  have  been  impotent  to  effect,  our  Grammar  Schools, 
already  so  fondly  our  pride,  will  respond  yet  more  nobly  to 
our  anxious  regard;  and  be  felt  in  grander  measure  than 
ever,  as  a  power  in  the  land.  And  on  the  instant  of  such  a 
renovation  in  the  work  of  our  Grammar  Schools,  the  charac- 
ter of  the  examinations  for  High  Schools  will  be  modified, 
their  arbitrary  features  will  disappear,  the  bald  technics  with 
which  the  memory  may  have  been  crammed,  will  be  discred- 
ited, and  an  essential  element  of  fitness  will  be  the  culture 


that  has  entered  into  the  staple  of  mind  and  of  character, 
and  helped  to  mould  the  whole  being  into  nobler  proportions 
and  inspire  it  to  nobler  ends.  I  cannot  specify  just  how 
this  new  test  is  to  be  applied.  I  do  not  care  to  do  so.  I 
only  know  that  when  the  demand  comes,  the  supply  will 
follow.  Let  it  speedily  come!  It  is  in  vain  that  School 
Committees  in  their  annual  reports,  sometimes  earnestly  ask, 
why  the  teachers  do  not  pay  more  attention  to  this  or  that 
neglected  yet  important  study.  The  teachers  will  attend  to 
all  things  for  the  good  of  their  scholars,  the  moment  that 
School  Committees  will  untie  their  hands  and  bid  them  work 
in  freedom.  We  love  and  honor  our  State.  We  glory  in  her 
educational  institutions.  May  the  time  soon  come,  through 
the  reforming  faithfulness  of  those  who  have  them  in  charge, 
when  every  defect  shall  be  removed  from  their  structure  and 
methods,  so  that  with  fresh  enthusiasm  and  renewed  con- 
fidence, we  may  challenge  for  them  the  admiration  of  the 
world. 


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